Jack Sheen

Jack Sheen is a conductor and composer from Manchester, recognised for his inventive approach to music-making, which blends orchestral traditions with an expansive interdisciplinary perspective.

He has conducted some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the BBC, BBC Scottish and London Symphony orchestras, BBC and London Philharmonic orchestras, as well as new music specialists such as the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Ensemble 10:10, Bit20 Ensemble and London Sinfonietta. This season he makes his debut with Ulster Orchestra and Manchester Camerata and returns to Klangforum Wien.

Equally at home in opera, he made his Royal Opera House debut in 2022, conducting the world premiere of Oliver Leith and Matt Copson’s Last Days, to great acclaim. In 2024 he conducted a new production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with English Touring Opera and returned to Tanglewood, conducting Sir George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence.

He has collaborated on interdisciplinary projects with leading visual, dance and experimental music artists, including Matthew Barney, Cerith Wyn Evans, Burrows & Fargion and Elaine Mitchener. In 2024 he co-directed London Sinfonietta in a rare live performance of Beckett’s Quad at Southbank Centre, paired with Feldman’s For Samuel Beckett.

As co-director of London Contemporary Music Festival he has curated sell-out events across the capital, bringing together internationally established and grass-roots artists from a wide range of disciplines in programmes hailed as adventurous and provocative.

As a composer, he has been commissioned and had works performed by many of the orchestras and ensembles he conducts, alongside commissions from eminent arts organisations such as the Venice Biennale, Casa de Serralves in Porto, and London’s V&A and Camden Art Centre. Recent projects include Lag, a spatialised orchestral piece commissioned by BBC SSO and Ilan Volkov for Tectonics Festival; Press, a piano quintet commissioned by Wigmore Hall and Apartment House; and Ceremony Container, a spatialised performance commissioned by Ensemble Mosaik and Berlin’s Silent Green. Wien Modern has commissioned him to compose a work for flute, accordion, cello and pre-recorded sound.

Jack Sheen’s most recent awards include an Ernst von Siemens Foundation Progetto Positano Residency (2024) and a PRS Composers Fund (2021). He was named BBC Young Composer of the Year in 2011.

Arweinydd

Arweinydd a chyfansoddwr o Fanceinion yw Jack Sheen, sy’n adnabyddus am ei ddull dyfeisgar o greu cerddoriaeth, sy’n cyfuno traddodiadau cerddorfaol â phersbectif rhyngddisgyblaethol eang.

Mae wedi arwain rhai o brif gerddorfeydd y byd, gan gynnwys Cerddorfa Symffoni’r BBC, Cerddorfa BBC yr Alban, a Cherddorfa Symffoni Llundain, Cerddorfeydd Ffilharmonig y BBC a Llundain, yn ogystal â rhai sy’n arbenigo mewn cerddoriaeth newydd, fel Cerddorfa Gyfoes Gŵyl Lucerne, Ensemble 10:10, Ensemble Bit20, a Sinfonietta Llundain. Y tymor hwn, bydd Jack yn ymddangos am y tro cyntaf gyda Cherddorfa Ulster a’r Manchester Camerata, ac yn dychwelyd i Klangforum Wien.

Mae’r arweinydd yr un mor gartrefol ym myd yr opera ac yn 2022, ymddangosodd am y tro cyntaf yn y Tŷ Opera Brenhinol, gan arwain y perfformiad cyntaf erioed o Last Days gan Oliver Leith a Matt Copson, a gafodd lawer o glod. Yn 2024, arweiniodd gynhyrchiad newydd o The Rake’s Progress gan Stravinsky gyda’r English Touring Opera, a dychwelodd i Tanglewood i arwain Lessons in Love and Violence gan Syr George Benjamin.

Mae wedi cydweithio ar brosiectau rhyngddisgyblaethol gydag artistiaid gweledol, dawns ac arbrofol blaenllaw, gan gynnwys Matthew Barney, Cerith Wyn Evans, Burrows & Fargion, ac Elaine Mitchener. Yn 2024, bu’n cyd-gyfarwyddo Sinfonietta Llundain mewn perfformiad byw prin o Quad gan Beckett yng Nghanolfan Southbank, ynghyd â For Samuel Beckett gan Feldman.

Fel cyd-gyfarwyddwr Gŵyl Cerddoriaeth Gyfoes Llundain, mae wedi curadu digwyddiadau poblogaidd ar hyd a lled y brifddinas, gan ddod ag artistiaid rhyngwladol profiadol ac artistiaid llawr gwlad o amrywiaeth eang o ddisgyblaethau at ei gilydd mewn rhaglenni sydd wedi cael eu galw’n anturus a phryfoclyd.

Fel cyfansoddwr, mae llawer o’r cerddorfeydd a’r ensembles y mae’n eu harwain wedi comisiynu gweithiau ganddo ac wedi perfformio ei gyfansoddiadau. Mae hefyd wedi cael comisiynau gan sefydliadau celfyddydol amlwg fel La Biennale de Venezia, Casa de Serralves yn Porto, a V&A a Chanolfan Gelf Camden yn Llundain. Mae ei brosiectau diweddar yn cynnwys Lag, darn cerddorfaol gofodol a gomisiynwyd gan BBC SSO ac Ilan Volkov ar gyfer Gŵyl Tectonics; Press, pumawd piano a gomisiynwyd gan Neuadd Wigmore ac Apartment House; a Ceremony Container, perfformiad gofodol a gomisiynwyd gan Ensemble Mosaik a Silent Green o Berlin. Mae Wien Modern wedi ei gomisiynu i gyfansoddi gwaith ar gyfer ffliwt, acordion, soddgrwth a sain wedi’i recordio ymlaen llaw.

Mae gwobrau diweddaraf Jack Sheen yn cynnwys Cyfnod Preswyl Progetto Positano yn Sefydliad Ernst von Siemens (2024) a Chronfa Cyfansoddwyr PRS (2021). Enillodd wobr Cyfansoddwr Ifanc y Flwyddyn y BBC yn 2011.